News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-12-29
WHAT IMAGINATION DID.
Cured of Impending HydrophObia
by Relieving His Mind of Dread.
From the Kansas City Times. |

From the Kansas City Times,l
A young man with bright, fully dis
colored face and neck and trembling
limbs staggered into the lobby of the
Pacific House yesterday, Charles A.
Collins WAS his name and he hailed from
Sioux City, Ia, He had been bitten in
several places by rabid dog q few
days before, He was in search of
maidstone and wanted to see Major
Dickson, the possessor of s'the mascot"
It was early i'll the morning wi1en
Collins arrived. The moment Major
Dickson saw him he was hurried off in
Il carriage to room at Seventh and
Main streets. His eyes had become
streaked with red and the saliva dropped
from his mouth. The young man was
frightened and told his fearless com
panion who sat opposite him that
thousand horrors were preying on his
mind. When the two arrived at the
place Collins could hardly be induced
to go up stairs to the room that was In
readiness for him. He became frantic,
stamped about at the foot of the stairs,
and the people who gathered about be
Heyed him insane.
After Collins had been hustled off to
the room by Major Dickson and an as
sistant the maidstone doctor discovered
that he ha l left his maidstone at the
hotel. Leaving Collins in the room
with boy watching him, Major Dickson
returned for the stone.
In the meantime Collins began pac-
ing backward and forward in the room.
Then he began describing a circle, NOV
ing rapidly as he staggered along and
swaying from side to side.
"Oh, am going ma IT, he shrieked.
II am going mad!"
The frightened boy edged his chair
nearer the door. Then he opened 1t an
inch or two. He did this all very slow
ly and carefully, for fear that the man
with the red streaked Dyes, who so mad
" paced the floor, might hear him.
There were others in the hall outside
by this time, attracted by the cries of
the frenzied man. Not one of them
would have ventured inside the door
between them and the hall for a consid-
cradle reward. Collins suddenly turned
toward the boy. He fixed his eyes
steadily upon him and stopped his
swinging strides for few moments.
The object of his frightful stare was al
most frozen to his seat with horror, and
the half dozen persons outside shouted
to him to escape Then the man fairly
roared:
boy, get outside; I feel that I am
becoming dangerous.
The boy obeyed with relieved mind
and the door slammed loudly behind
him. Then there was grating sound
in the lock, and presently the key came
flying through the transom into the
hall
81 can't get out now to injure any
one, " shouted the man from within,
''aud no one can get in to me-"
For awhile the footsteps could be
heard inside the room and then became
silent. A blotched face, a pair OF blood
red eyes and foam-fecked mouth APP
peared above the door. 1t was there
only for moment and then the transcm
fell. The man began crying aloud
again.
Major Dickson and an officer ap-
peared at the door a short time later.
'Let me in," shouted the possessor
of the maidstone. ''You are not dead
man yet by any means"
''Oh, docter, 1 am a doomed man,"
diSmally shouted the man from within.
81 will not let you in for [ might harm
you"
1t became evident then that the fear
of hydrophobia had SO overcome Collins
that he had resigned himself to the fate
which he felt sure awaited him. Some
of the men, including Major Dickson,
said that the thought of rabies had
been preying so constantly on the mans
mind that the nervous system had been
The mind had been infu-
enced by what it imagined the horrors
of hydrophobia to be and this condition
was conducive of disease.
The policeman offered to break in the
door, but Major Dickson said:
"Hold up; I will force my way
through the transom. L can quiet the
man"
This the Major did after considerable
squeezing. Collins implored him not
to come in. When Major Collins
dropped to the floor of the room he
walked right up to the man who had al
ready surrendered himself as willing
victim to hydrophobia.
The man quiete down with remark
able quiclzness. The MAIDSTONE was APP
piled, and the man evidently began to
think there were hopes for him, for he
went to bed and rested quietly until
evening Then the stone, which had
adhered all day, dropped off. The dis
cOlOration had left his face and the pa
tient returned to his home last night.
''The imagination is fearful thing"
said Major Dickson. "This is the
most remarkable case have ever heard
or read of. The mans relatives had az
tually written to me that the dog which
bit him was not mad. He was afflicted
with erysipelas and the dog bites in
duced blood poisoning. This led him
to believe the dog was mad, and the
thought preyel upon his mind more
fearfully than the doom of the con-
demned awaiting to-morrow's execution.
believe that the maidstone cured the
blood poison AMI prevented him from
lapsing into insanity, as he thought of
the horrors of rabies and believed that
fearful disease was him. His faith in
the maidstone and its efficiency pro
duced this effect.
II must admit there is great deal in
the imagination, and l think this case
is remarkable enough to command the
attention and study of the medical fra
tarDitvo